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In this installment of our “3 Salesforce Execs, 3 Questions” series, we asked top Salesforce executives about building their careers as women in technology—and what advice they’d give to people at all stages of their own careers in technology. We also asked them about the role volunteering and giving back have played in their career development. Read on for some fascinating answers.
Cheryl Porro, SVP, Tech and Products, Salesforce FoundationWhat I love about working in tech is that everything is changing always. This means that its easy for anyone to come in new and catch up with those already in the industry as new languages and paradigms are introduced continuously. It also means that you have to always be learning otherwise your skills will quickly become out of date. So my advice—don't be intimidated by anyone and know that, like with most any skill, given the time and effort you will figure it out!
I'd love to have the skills of a data scientist! There is so much data and so much we can learn from data, especially when it comes to solving tough problems that impact people's lives. If I could go back and do it all again I would become a data scientist.
I love pro bono volunteering and serving on nonprofit boards. Pro bono is so satisfying because you see the impact that just a little bit of effort can have on a nonprofit. I once built a demo salesforce app for a nonprofit to automate a very cumbersome process. When I demo'd it to the woman who normally had to do the manual work, it brought tears to her eyes!
I also enjoy serving on nonprofit boards and volunteering with the same organizations in my passion area of kids and education. It gives me a chance to advise on the strategy of the nonprofit as well as have the opportunity to work directly with the kids the nonprofit is impacting.
There have been so many great Salesforce volunteer activities. My favorite had to be when a small group of us participated in a hackathon in San Francisco. We got paired up with a great organization and in a weekend were able to get them really close to solving a couple of major painpoints. We then continued the work after that weekend and were eventually able to get the changes pushed to production. I was so impressed with the group of employees who were willing to give up their entire weekend to help a nonprofit! We had a great time and met a great group of people.
Leah McGowen-Hare, Master Technical InstructorI always tell girls, or anyone, how important it is to really learn your stuff. Get your “dev cred.” Once you have the skills, it’s important to be confident and own it. Don’t ever be afraid to speak up about what you know.
Beyond that, when you get into a career—whether it’s a tech career or not—it’s so important to have a vision for yourself. I’ve always been good at my job, but early on, I didn’t have a vision for myself. I floated around a bit, and took on projects because other people told me they’d be good for me and my career development. Ultimately, what I learned was if you don’t have a vision for yourself, someone else will have one for you.
I was a computer science undergrad, so I have a lot of tech skills. For me, it’s not about lacking skills, but making sure I stay up to date on current technology. Things here at Salesforce move so quickly, and I need to make sure I stay abreast on the latest. Right now I am working on being more well-versed in Salesforce1 Lightning and Salesforce Wave, but I have to be very intentional about making the time.
One of my “aha” moments came to me when I was speaking to a group from Girls Who Code at Twitter. I shared my story of how I came into tech—how I started off as a dance major before moving into computer science. The girls in the room got so excited. After, they thanked me for sharing my story. These girls had so many things they were interested in outside of tech, and I helped them know that it was OK!
I loved the Black Girls Code Robotics event at UC Berkeley—seeing how excited the girls were when they finally got their programs to work and saw the robots move was so inspiring to me. I’ve also been lucky enough to travel with the Salesforce Foundation to Haiti twice—which were absolutely life changing trips!
For me, it starts with awareness. Part of my job at the Foundation is to make sure that girls know that there are careers in tech available for them, and that a career in tech can be challenging, rewarding and fun! There are so many amazing opportunities for girls today—with tech summer camps, programming courses, and awesome organizations like Girls Who Code, Black Girls Code and Technovation. I wish I had this stuff when I was growing up!
Before I worked at the Salesforce Foundation, I worked in our technology organization for many years—including as the chief of staff to our CIO and SVP of Tech Ops. So for me, it’s not what technical skill do I wish I had—but what technical skill I wish I would have kept! Today, there are so many cool new mobile capabilities. I think it would be so fun to be able to program and make mobile apps. It’s something I could easily learn, I just need to set aside the time to do it!
Why types of volunteer activities inspire you and why? What has been your favorite volunteer activity you've participated in at Salesforce?
Whenever my team hears me cheering out loud at my desk, they know that I must be on Code.org. I have so much fun playing on the site—I could keep coding and building modules all day. I think that Code.org has created the biggest movement for us. We’ve had nearly 6,000 Salesforce employees take the Hour of Code and take this back into the community. I was just in Tokyo and watched our employees deliver the Hour of Code to a group of kids and it was unbelievably inspiring to see how quickly the kids were getting it. The mentors and volunteers were so excited. Code.org has really shown kids around the world — whether in Tokyo or right here in San Francisco Unified School District—that coding is fun!
